High School Legislation In Oregon 203 therefore almost negligible so far as the state in general was concerned. High school organization must wait upon the develop- ment of elementary grades and such development in Ore- gon was slow. Not only were there few large commun- ities, but the state as a whole was sparsely settled until immigration began to speed up about the year 1900. Keeping in mind that Oregon is a state of few large communities, even with its present population of 783,389, we can realize the situation in 1860 when the population was only 52,465, in 1880 when there were only 174,768 persons within the boundaries of the state, and in 1890 when the population was 317,704, considerably less than half the present figure. 2 Such a state of affairs as is here pointed out is not conducive even to the thorough grade school organization which always forms the basis for the establishing of the more advanced departments. Wherever a group of settlers lived close enough together so that their children could be collected at some central point, a school district was organized and a teacher was employed. Money was scarce and the school term was correspondingly short. 3 From 1873, the earliest year for which statistics are available, until 1885, the average school term throughout the state was a little less than ninety days. As late as 1895, the average school term was only five and four-tenths months. Even of these weak school districts, there were comparatively few. In 1873 there were 642. This number had increased to 1,007 by 1880 and to 1,693 by 1890. In this connection, State Superintendent E. B. McElroy states in his report of 1889 that many of the districts were very large, "often em- bracing within their boundaries from fifteen to twenty- five square miles, while the average for the entire state is not under nine square miles. It is evident that one 2 United States Census. 3 S. C. Simpson — Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public In- struction of Oregon. 1874. p. 5.
